Thoughts on Pop!_OS

Introduction

As a software engineer and gamer, my choice of operating system is important.

I was long hesitant to use an operating system other than Windows up until recently. The main reason was software compatibility.

With Steam driving Linux gaming forward with their recent announcement of a Debian based desktop distribution, SteamOS, my hesitation has been waning. Valve and the Debian team seem to be working together closer than we initially thought.

With more confidence behind Linux as a catch-all operating system that fits my needs, I first tried Linux Mint but thought it was better suited for a laptop environment. I’ve wanted to do a Mac but the price tag has always turned me off.

In this blog post, I’ll be breaking down why I’ve landed on Pop!_OS by System76. The good, the bad, and my closing recommendations for those who enjoy coding and gaming like I do.

Let’s dive in!

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos

https://system76.com/pop/

https://system76.com/

Why Pop!_OS?

After some research and watching The Primeagen teach me algorithms and data structures using Pop!_OS, I decided to give it a crack.

It seemed highly geared to engineers which enticed me, as someone who programs over 30 hours a week typically.

Let’s go over the positive aspects first.

https://x.com/ThePrimeagen

https://wakatime.com/@SieepCoding

The good

• Workspaces – Workspaces is a built-in window manager. It allows you to run different ‘workspaces’ seamlessly. For example, I can be writing this blog post in one workspace while checking the scores and my media player in another workspace. This helps you stay organized & I’ve found it to be easy to work with after I learned the shortcuts SUPER + HOME and SUPER + END to navigate my workspaces without the interface.

• NVIDIA Support – Pop!_OS provides an ISO with built-in NVIDIA drivers, making it one of the best distributions for gamers using NVIDIA cards. It works out-of-the-box with no issues so far.

• Performance – The system feels snappy, and the tiling window manager (Pop Shell) offered a smooth workflow as it automatically sizes your applications for you, especially helpful as I’m running a single monitor right now.

• Engineer-Friendly – As someone who codes daily, having a solid Linux environment without excessive tinkering was a plus.

• Gaming Compatibility – With Pop being Debian based, it gets the best gaming support around. Thanks to Proton, gaming on Linux is no longer a hassle. I was able to play most of my library with little to no issues.

• Aesthetics and UX – The GNOME-based UI is polished, with a focus on productivity and no overdone graphics. It feels Mac inspired, yet is more simplistic and geared towards working.

The not so good

• No Ableton – As a longtime Ableton user for music production, I am going to have to find an alternative if I want to try to using Linux for this as well.

• Multiple displays – Take this with a grain of salt, but a common complaint online is managing multiple displays. I have not tested this out myself yet.

My Experience So Far

Installing Pop!_OS was a breeze. I’ve never experienced such an easy setup with a Linux distro.

The setup process was straightforward, and I appreciated the disk encryption option during install and it works great so far.

System updates are also handled well, with minimal downtime.

For development, setting up my tools (VSCode, Rider, C, Go, and Node.js) was seamless.

The APT package manager works great, and Flatpak support provides easy access to additional applications.

On the gaming front, Proton made running Windows games much easier than expected.

While not every game runs flawlessly, the experience has been positive.

The System76 community, the Pop!_OS subreddit, and documentation also made troubleshooting easier when I ran into minor issues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(software)

Conclusion

Pop!_OS has proven to be a strong alternative to both Windows and macOS.

It balances usability, gaming support, and developer tools well, making it a compelling option for users who want the flexibility of Linux without compromising too much on software compatibility.

For anyone considering a switch, especially gamers and developers, Pop!_OS is worth trying.

While no OS is perfect, this one gets a lot right and continues to improve.

If Linux gaming and desktop experience keep evolving at this pace, and a viable alternative to Ableton is released for Linux, my days of using Windows as a primary OS might be numbered.

Written By Nick Stambaugh